Find Your Adventure

This Weekend

March 09, 2010

It’s true that Austin (pop. 782,967) is different in at least one way from the rest of Texas: It’s the lone blue outpost in an overwhelmingly red state. But in every way that counts, the state capital is pure Lone Star. Austinites, like all Texans, two-step to Willie, accessorize in cowboy boots, and know how to spell “y’all” (never “ya’ll”). Tacos filled with scrambled eggs are customary for breakfast, and salt-encrusted margaritas suffice for electrolyte drinks. I migrated here from Dallas a decade ago and then, like a lot of UT grads, figured out a way to stick around. Mid-March is the time I’m especially glad I did: Temps hover in the 70s, and the South By Southwest Festival brings 1,900 bands to town.

March 02, 2010

You won’t find a replica of Charleston Peak on the Las Vegas Strip. The 11,918-foot-tall chunk of granite is an hour away, blissfully removed from the lights and noise, in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (702-515-5400). In a good year, Charleston harbors some of the best unsung ice climbing in the West. “The Vegas Hose Monster is ridiculously cool,” says local Jason Martin, describing a three-tiered, 400-foot frozen cascade. Martin also favors Echo Falls: “There’s a good line on fat ice to set up a top rope and play for a few hours.” Approach from the Cathedral Rock trailhead off Route 157. Nearby Mount Charleston Lodge has cozy cabins ($200).

February 17, 2010

Why else did Bill Gore invent waterproof-breathable fabric? It was, of course, for hikers to don while exploring Olympic National Park’s fecund, ferny Quinault Valley in the winter, when most of its sopping 12 annual feet of rain falls. You get to slog the valley’s temperate rain forest—one of the world’s rarest ecosystems—in its most natural (read: wet) state, at a time of year when you’ll see more elk than people. The Quinault area is a hall of fame of world-record trees, including red cedar, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and hemlock, plus monstrous moss-draped maples, all accessible via short trails out of Lake Quinault. Our picks are the half-mile Maple Glade Trail, the 0.2-mile Quinault Big Cedar Trail, and the 1.3-mile Kestner Homestead Trail (nps.gov/olym). Lake Quinault Lodge provides peaceful refuge from the dampness (doubles from $129).—Text by Robert Earle HowellsSee more weekend trip ideas >>

April 28, 2009

Text by Andrea Minarcek, see more Top 10 listsRankings by Robert Earle Howells, Jim Gorman, and the editors

For our 10th anniversary issue (April/May 2009, on newsstands now) we drew on a decade of experience to find the 50 best adventure trips—in our own spectacular backyard. Heli-skiing, surfing, climbing, pedaling, and paddling excursions across the country made the list, but these ten epic trips took top honors. Check out the videos—and start planning now for a summer staycation in the states!

10. Our Freshwater Ocean: Wreck-diving Lake Superior, Minnesota

The waters off of Grand Portage, Minnesota, near Isle Royale National Park, are packed with epic shipwrecks on par with anything you’d find out by Fiji. And they’re in far better shape: Saltwater sites are far more eroded, usually with coral and sponges littering their surface, while fresh-water wrecks stay pristine.

Need more inspiration? Experience a Lake Superior wreck-dive firsthand with this footage of a 2008 scuba trip to the Madeira site:

April 17, 2009

The last gasps of winter will howl across Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, and southern Wyoming this weekend, depositing some wet, heavy snow for spring skiers. But in the east, south, and much of the west, spring has officially sprung.

Timing couldn t be better for participants in Georgia s BRAG Spring Tune-up Ride ($65; brag.org). Based in Madison (once called the best small town in America), the riding weekend includes a century on Saturday. Consider it a tune-up for the Bike Ride Across Georgia, June 6-13. In North Carolina, meanwhile, paddlers are celebrating the spring run-off in style on the newly reborn Cheoah River (www.noc.com). The rivers nonstop technical action through Class IV and V rapids requires deft participation and more than a little hutspa from every paddler. Moving up the eastern seaboard, spring sun means softening snow on Mount Washington's Tuckerman's Ravine. The New Hampshire backcountry run has become rite of passage for all East Coast skiers (www.tuckerman.org) and one of our 50 Best American Adventures. On the left coast, meanwhile, clear skies and temperatures in the high 60s greet the 10,000 riders and 50,000 fans converging on Monterey, California for the Sea Otter Classic (seaotterclassic.com), North America's biggest cycling party. Those conditions continue inland, and, sure, they may feel a bit out-of-place on 14,179-foot Mount Shasta during the Winter Expedition Training course from SMS Mountain Guides (www.swsmtns.com). But we ll take the bluebird skies. It s still easy enough to remember the big-storm bluster of winter.

March 20, 2009

While it’s officially spring according to the calendar, we’ve still got winter on the brain. So with helmets protecting our brain grapes and an eye on the weather map, we look forward to another weekend in the mountains. Luckily, ma nature is rolling out the white carpet.

In the Pacific Northwest, a storm could drop a foot of fluff on the Cascades and the Northern Sierra. Take advantage of the extra cushioning during Mount Hood’s Suds on the Slopes Festival. Sample enough of the Oregon's finest microbrews, and you may just wind up jumping in a lake–literally–during America’s Pond Skimming Championships. Moving more central, you can save on lodging and spend on après ski at the Sunriver Resort, which has a “stay free, ski free” package that adds up to just $280 for three nights and includes three days of lift tickets at Mount Bachelor.

Back East, powder hounds will be left wanting, but there's plenty of clear days and deals to be had throughout Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire. And in Tennessee, the skies should be clear and the rainbows active in the trophy stretch of the Watauga River, where you get 20-fish days, heck, 40-fish days at Watauga River Lodge. Casting distance from the river, the Watauga has spanking-new knotty-pine cabins for half the price of those Western gentleman’s fishing lodges. It’s a little taste of what’s next, when we we finally have to bid adieu to the winter wonderland. Enjoy the weekend!

A storm moving across southern Colorado and northern New Mexico will powder the course for Telluride Ski Resort’s Psycho 10K on Saturday. Registration starts at 10:30 at Priest Lake, and the race kicks off at noon. Up north in Montana, the skies will be much clearer, providing perfect viewing conditions for the Red Lodge Mountain Resort's National Finals Ski-Joring Races. Skijoring is the sport of skiing while being towed by a dog or horse. What else would you expect in rodeo country?

Meanwhile, further west, Lake Tahoe’s slopes could hardly hold any more fluffy stuff. They’ve accumulated 400 inches this winter, much of it in March. Matriculate in Alpine Meadows’ Steep Camps this Friday to learn to ski OB and take advantage of the resort’s open-boundary policy. Nearby Kirkwood Mountain Resort, which is offering ski and stay packages from $109, is also prepping for next weekend’s North American Free Skiing Championships. Book now.

Sunny Southern California is serving up blue skies and perfect road cycling weather. Take advantage by traveling to the kitschy, Danish-themed town of Solvang for the Solvang Century ride. The two-laners in the Santa Ynez Mountains, which link the wineries that seduced the oenophiles in Sideways, make for some of the best cycling in the U.S. Back East, a cold front should freeze the slopes, while providing perfect XC conditions out of Lapland Lake lodge in the southern Adirondacks, where owner and former U.S. Olympic cross-country skier Olavi Hirvonen has carved out his own slice of Finland: a 50K trail network, Finnish-style cabins, and two pet reindeer. Enjoy the weekend! —Michael Benoist

March 05, 2009

**While warming temperatures and scattered rains threaten to wipe much of the snow that accumulated in the East this week, the west—particularly Utah and Colorado—is getting hammered. Utah resorts are reporting as much as a foot of fresh snowfall Thursday morning, with plenty more on the way. “This cycle could bring as much as 20 inches before the weekend’s out,” says Jessica Kunzer of Ski Utah. Colorado is also knee-deep in fluffy stuff. Here’s how to take advantage:

UTAH

Ski Six Resorts in One Day

Bragging rights don’t get much better than this: To ski six Park City area resorts in a single day, enlist a guide on the Ski Utah Interconnect Tour–who will provide the security clearance to drop ropes and jump lines in the course of skiing Deer Valley, Park City, Brighton, Solitude, Alta, and Snowbird. The routes are almost entirely backcountry, but you don’t need skins or telemark skis. With a combination of lifts and judicious traversing you can link up with insanely fun powder runs, an average of two at each ski area. ($250, including lunch, equipment, and return transportation; skiutah.com)

COLORADO

For that Mogul-Lover in You

This weekend marks the second of Bob Barne’s two bump camps at Mary Jane at Winter Park Resort, where more than half of the 12,060-foot mountain’s 95 skiable acres are covered in moguls the size of VW Beetles. During the camp, Colorado’s famed mogul guru and some handpicked instructors work with groups divided by skill level, starting with indoor sessions and progressing through video stance analysis and lots of skiing. ($499; skiwinterpark.com).